There are many different considerations that may be taken into account when designing an aircraft seat layout for an aircraft. Two conflicting considerations are firstly, for the sake of efficiency, the seats should be arranged to maximise as far as practicable the passenger density, and secondly, for the sake of passenger comfort and ease of embarking and disembarking, the aisles should be as wide as practicably possible. Of course, aiding embarking and disembarking results in improved turn-around times, which in turn may increase an airline's profitability and/or competitiveness.
There are many examples in the prior art of aircraft seat layout design including EP 0 322 930, EP 0 443 664, EP 0 530 900, EP 0 530 920, EP 0 530 923, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,498,649, 5,829,836 and 6,776,457. Some of the prior art aircraft seat layout designs (for example EP 0 322 930) provide the ability to adjust the width of the aisle, but only as a result of changing the width of all of the seats in the row. Others merely provide the ability to change between 3-seat and 2-seat configuration in which the row has the same width. U.S. Pat. No. 5,829,836 discloses the possibility of increasing the width of the aisle by means of providing seats each having a width that narrows when not in use and widens when sat on by a passenger. The widening of the aisle is however limited. Moreover, if only one seat incorporates the system of U.S. Pat. No. 5,829,836, the width variation is limited; while if several seat use the system, the weight of the seat row is significantly increased.
The present invention seeks to provide an aircraft seat assembly that is moveable between two configurations such that the aisle width may be widened significantly. Additionally or alternatively, the present invention seeks to provide an aircraft seat assembly, which is configurable to allow efficient use of the space in the fuselage of the aircraft, not only enabling the aisle space to be readily increased when required, but also not reducing the number of passengers able to be carried by the aircraft.